Pitt Swimming Opens Season with 11 Relay Wins

Friday, September 27

Pittsburgh, PA

5 PM (Relays)

Pitt

Carnegie Mellon

Pitt Swimming Opens Season with 11 Relay Wins

9/27/2019 7:30:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Results

PITTSBURGH—The Pitt swimming & diving program opened its 2019-20 season by winning 11-of-12 races in a relays-only swimming meet against Carnegie Mellon in front of a nice Friday evening crowd at a newly decorated Trees Pool highlighted with the University's new colors.

The Pitt women's relays went a perfect 6-for-6 versus the visiting Tartans from nearby, while the Panthers won five men's events as well.

Beginning his fourth season at the helm of Pitt swimming & diving, head coach John Hargis was pleased with his team's performance in the unique team-oriented format.

"It's always fun to see the excitement for the first meet of the season," Hargis said. "We were ready to go. With almost no time between races, the athletes had to be ready for anything tonight, but it was an exciting format. It helped us get a gauge of where we are."

Helping the Panthers win multiple events were freshmen Daisy Anderson, Jerry Chen, Tatum Detwiler and Alexandra Marlow, while Kayla Graham was also impressive in the women's butterfly relay victory.

Sophomores Serhii Ahadzhanian and Madison Nalls aided multiple event wins, as did juniors Allison Ramirez and Armin Remenyi. Junior Blaise Vera, a returning ACC medalist and NCAA qualifier, opened his 2019-20 season with an impressive 19.94 50-yard freestyle split in the freestyle crescendo relay.

Four Pitt seniors saw their squads win multiple races: Samy Helmbacher, Madelyn Shaffer, Luke Smutny and Eben Vorster. Helmbacher and Vorster resumed collegiate action after a busy summer of competing internationally for France and South Africa, respectively.

"We have an unbelievable senior class," Hargis added. "Their leadership is already paying dividends for us and will continue to be vital throughout the season. It's going to be an exciting year for them, and we're happy to have them leading our program."

Here is a full list of Pitt event winners from Friday's relays meet:

500-Yard Freestyle Crescendo
Pitt Women: 4:35.45 | Alyssa Conley, Lauren Kelly, Madelyn Shaffer, Madison Nalls
Pitt Men: 4:01.04 | Szymon Pytlarczyk, Serhii Ahadzhanian, Armin Remenyi, Eben Vorster

3x100 Backstroke Relay
Pitt Women: 2:57.90 | Shahar Menahem, Daisy Anderson, Allison Ramirez

3x100 Breaststroke Relay
Pitt Women: 3:21.22 | Tatum Detwiler, Daisy Anderson, Alexandra Marlow
Pitt Men: 2:53.19 | Samy Helmbacher, Jerry Chen, Eben Vorster

3x100 Butterfly Relay
Pitt Women: 2:55.78 | Kayla Graham, Jacqueline Hendrix, Allison Ramirez
Pitt Men: 2:30.75 | Eben Vorster, Armin Remenyi, Serhii Ahadzhanian

4x100 Individual Medley Relay
Pitt Women: 4:05.09 | Daisy Anderson, Sarah Giamber, Madelyn Shaffer, Alexandra Marlow
Pitt Men: 3:34.18 | Samy Helmbacher, Jerry Chen, Luay Hilmi, Luke Smutny

200-Yard Medley Relay
Pitt Women: 1:46.45 | Valerie Daigneault, Tatum Detwiler, Kayla Graham, Madison Nalls
Pitt Men: 1:31.94 | Luke Smutny, Samy Helmbacher, Eben Vorster, Blaise Vera

The Panthers are back in action next weekend at the FIU TYR Classic in Miami as some of Pitt's top athletes will compete at the two-day meet on Friday evening, Oct. 4, and Saturday morning, Oct. 5.

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